"With her parents gone in search of work, twelve-year-old Cristina must act as a mother to her two younger brothers. Through her eyes, we roam the streets of a contemporary Moldovan village populated almost entirely with children and old people. Just as most of the inhabitants left their countryside and homes with the desire to earn a better income, their parents also went to the world for money, the mother to Italy, the father to Siberia, and the...

Six days a week the chickens help the Greenstalk family and their animals recover from mishaps that occur on the farm, but they need one day to rest.

When Maggie MacAuley returns to the small coal town of her childhood, she has no intention of staying. Her life is in Chicago now. There's nothing to keep her in Skingle Creek ... nothing but the discovery that a man who has lived most of his life for the children of Skingle Creek is no longer the hero of Maggie's childhood but seems destined to become the love of her life. In Maggie's quest for independence, she finds her greatest strength in sacrifice...

"Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn't belong. Not with his mother's new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father's wife. Not at school, where he's an outcast. After his best friend moves away, Raymond has only two real connections: to the feral cat he's tamed and to a blind ninety-two-year-old woman in his building who's introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez? Mildred Gutermann, a German Jew who narrowly...

Oprah's latest book club selection! New York Times Best Seller At 40, Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear: by the schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and polish ex-Navy man and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid, self-conscious woman. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes...

"Cornelia Brown is reeling from a terrifying act of violence when she gets word that her mother has been badly injured in an accident. Cornelia returns to Virginia, to the house she grew up in, and in the weeks that follow, she watches her mother Ellie struggle to recover, fluctuating between her usual crisp, can-do clarity and periods of delirium during which she seems haunted by a devastating loss from her past. In grief-stricken tones, Ellie begs...

"If she had her way, Maddi would have stayed in California...But at her mother's request, she has returned to her hometown to help deal with an urgent matter concerning her father's will and his nostalgia-filled bakery. What Maddi doesn't know is that this issue also mysteriously involves the one person she's spent forever trying to forget--Wilder. Now she finds herself forced to make an impossible decision: give up her father's bakery and her lifelong...

"Out there is chaos, the collapse of society, and so much to be afraid of. All that matters is freedom. That's what Remy Blake has been taught by his survivalist father. Raised off the grid in the middle of nowhere, his own survival skills not yet honed, Remy is days shy of his eighth birthday when his father unexpectedly dies...He is found--near feral, silent, and terrified--in the small rural town of Blaire. To Anne, a nurturing mother of two adopted...

Traveling to Devon to accept an award, artist Jess Penhaligon is hosted by friendly Kate, whose loving extended family shares their stories and secrets, reminding Jess of how her own family fell apart years earlier. "Marcia Willett delivers another powerful and touching tale of the importance of friendship and family in The Sea Garden. Jess Penhaligon is on her way to Devon to receive an award for her botanical painting. Hosting her will be Kate,...